Antivirus for Gamers.

[Kishshey]

Hey guys, which antivirus solutions for hardcore gaming. And I'd like to know what you use personally as well. :confused:

[Kishshey]

btw anti-annoying ones only =D

[Gorman]

For a hardcore gamer?

Well anything that is "always on" is a definite no then, they take up way too much CPU time and disk queue. I'd not go with a firewall too if it's just gaming (your router probably has enough firewall to stop non-virus attacks).

I'd grab Malwarebytes, superantispyware, and maybe panda. Do a scan every month or whenever you do defrags.

If your are a pure gamer / that box is pure gaming, I wouldn't even bother with that. Whenever you feel it get a bit slow just reinstall your OS. Takes 20 minutes and it's practically guaranteed to remove any and all viruses. For bonus points use a disk nuker first (it's possible for a virus to survive an install, but not a nuke!).

WARNING: Don't nuke an SSD too often, SSDs have limited write cycles, and this will knock off a few cycles on every bit. Every month is fine, but doing this every day would be terrible!


dban time: For 1 pass; 120gb/hr for a HDD
OS install time: maybe 30 minutes
Patching time: maybe an hour (bonus points if you keep an image up to date on patches - and virus free!)
Game install time via Steam: maybe an hour (can happen concurrently to patch time)
All in all I can get a computer up and running full strength again in around 3 hours.

If you are a hardcore gamer and only use that computer for gaming, then that is definitely the best option.

[Blitzkreig]

This will probably sound surprising coming from an IT Admin but I do not use any anti-virus software on my home pc's, I hate having crap run in the background and I hate turning them off and on. I have not had a virus in years and believe it can be attributed more to awareness then anything, and I surf and download just as much as the next guy.....maybe it's luck, who knows...

When I am setting up laptops for work though, I use Windows Security Essentials for virus protection and have great success with it, but even then, some of these guys I issue machines to, manage to destroy them lol and Malwarebytes saves the day 90% of the time....you might try that out and see how it works for you!

-Blitz

[speed]

Blitzkreig wrote:
This will probably sound surprising coming from an IT Admin but I do not use any anti-virus software on my home pc's, I hate having crap run in the background and I hate turning them off and on. I have not had a virus in years and believe it can be attributed more to awareness then anything, and I surf and download just as much as the next guy.....maybe it's luck, who knows...

When I am setting up laptops for work though, I use Windows Security Essentials for virus protection and have great success with it, but even then, some of these guys I issue machines to, manage to destroy them lol and Malwarebytes saves the day 90% of the time....you might try that out and see how it works for you!

-Blitz

It's luck....

[Gorman]

speed wrote:
It's luck....

Not luck, I worked as an admin too, I don't run AV.

Every professional admin I know doesn't run antivirus.

[Blitzkreig]

Gorman wrote:
Not luck, I worked as an admin too, I don't run AV.

Every professional admin I know doesn't run antivirus.

lol thanks...I dont think it is either

Kishshey, its pretty much a toss up between any of them, stay away from anything with an annual renewal fee and heavy resource hogs. I have not used Kaspersky directly but it gets good reviews.

Check this website out, might help you!

http://www.av-test.org/en/home/

[sectionate]

microsoft security essentials, it eats up next to nothing on system resources and definitions come daily. Chrome eats up more
resources then this

msseces.exe, , , , 6.54 MB, *-PC\*, Microsoft Security Client User Interface
MsMpEng.exe, 69.57 MB, NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, Antimalware Service Executable

[speed]

I use Avast and it is always on and never have one bit of trouble.

[4Strings]

I use Symantec Endpoint Protection version 12.1 which I got fromy work.
Runs great, only uses about 5MB, and can be scheduled when and when not to run stuff like scans and whatnot.